About the author

Where we come from influences the way we think and see the world.

I have had a privileged career. My starting point was a degree in chemical engineering. Following a short time in industry, I entered medical school and trained to be a General Practitioner gaining qualifications in paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology and anaesthetics. During over 40 years as a GP (and still on the GP register), I gained a research degree in medical physics (MD) and developed interests in health economics, complexity theory and more latterly headache. For the last 25 years I have led the NHS Exeter Headache Clinic as a general practitioner with an extended role in headache.

I have published widely in all the above areas, most recently the The Oxford University Press Manual of Headache.  I was a NICE Fellow and have been closely involved with the British Association for the Study of Headache including the role of chairman, and the Royal College of General Practitioners as headache champion. I managed to fit in ten years as medical officer in the Royal Naval Reserve and a similar time as medical officer to our local professional football team as they languished in the lower divisions of the football league. I am very fortunate to have had such a rewarding and interesting career.

Over the past three years I have become increasingly interested in more holistic approaches to headache that complement the medical model. 

So, I guess you could say that I'm a sort of mixed-up, ageing, engineering/clinical scientist/generalist doctor/ aspiring hippie.

November 2025.